Definitely Alien. Definitely Male.

They had come in the night just like they said they would. Her parents had prepared her for this moment the best they knew how reminding her that the only thing that mattered is that she ran as far as she could as fast as she could and not stop. She was different. Lyra knew that from an early age. Many would consider her a child prodigy, but her parents had told her it went so much deeper than that.

If only she had known how deep.

Their screams had awakened her in the dead of the night, the pale slivers of moonlight her only source of illumination from the inky blackness that surrounded her. Lyra knew what she had to do, she had practiced the routine relentlessly since she was a small child, but now, with the screams of her mother filtering up the worn stairs from the main level—she couldn't run.

Cowards ran.

The intruders were well prepared to take her down. In her fit of rage, Lyra managed to completely incapacitate two of them, the ones unlucky enough to get caught on the landing of the stairs. Their limited movements were exactly the advantage she needed. It barely fazed her as she pulled the trigger to the rifle her father kept stashed away in the hall closet for emergencies.

Why should it?

They had intruded upon her home. There was no honor in that. One of the intruders managed to hit her with his taser, the voltage was enough to bring an elephant to its knees, and had she been a normal human, Lyra would have been barbecue, but she wasn't normal. That was why they had come for her.

And why they would leave without her.

Lyra groaned as she hit the floor, the rifle in her hands skittering uselessly across the polished wooden floor of the wide entry hall. Every muscle in her body spasmed and shook as it struggled to shake off the effects of the taser. Her mother's cries echoed around her, begging for them to let her go.

"She's just a child."

They didn't care. Her body was still shaking as they dragged her onto her belly, forcing her arms behind her back. The cuffs placed on her wrists were heavy and cold. Definitely not your normal everyday handcuffs. Lyra hissed and writhed angrily as she struggled to free herself, but the metal was too strong.

Tears were streaming down her face as she watched the armor-clad intruders line her parents up in front of her. Her obscenities filled the air as one of the men raised his gun, first to her father and then her mother. Their blood splattered across her face that was frozen in shock.

This was all her fault.


The memories seemed to surface when she wasn't drugged. The rage, the sorrow, and the guilt were normally drowned by the cocktail of meds pumping through her body day after day. Her mind was so jumbled and sedated that she barely felt anything anymore except loneliness. Lyra had killed and buried the emotions of her past long ago in an attempt to survive because if she hadn't, she would have ended her existence by now.

She had tried to a few times.

Each attempt was thwarted no matter how creative she tried to make it. In the end, she learned to just give in to the growing pit of loneliness and despair. No matter how melodramatic it sounded.

Today, however, was different.

As the cobwebs of unconsciousness began to fade and her senses began to focus, she could hear it. A heartbeat. And it wasn't hers. The heavenly sound was all she could think about as she unconsciously crept forward, her mind still in a dim haze. Her body followed the sound, closer and closer, each pulse of the heart becoming stronger and stronger…

Then she hit something.

That damn glass wall. The clang of her plastic muzzle against the hardened glass brought her mind out of its sleepy daze, but her eyes still didn't open. Lyra focused on keeping her breaths even and slow as she took in her surroundings.

There were two heartbeats, nearly in sync with one another. The second heartbeat sounded further away and slightly stronger than the one she was currently so close to. Almost as if it were younger. Lyra moved her head to press her ear against the cold glass. She could just make out raspy breathing coming from the cell next to hers. Her body instinctually found itself pressed tightly against the glass wall, huddled against the warmth the body on the other side emitted.

The redhead had to stop herself from moaning. It had so long since she had felt such warmth and the heat was divine. Lyra steeled herself mentally against what she might see on the other side. It didn't sound like another one of those Xenomorph creatures. The glass would be rattling by now if it was.

The creature's eyes were molten amber, and she found herself caught up their intensity before finally taking in the rest of him. The creature had a heavy, thick skull that was mostly a crest-like forehead. Its amber eyes were sunk back behind a looming brow line and settled above a mouth lined with sharp teeth and a pair of tusks that framed its upper lip.

A pair of arthropod-like mandibles extended from the base of its jaw on either side and followed along its curve, jutting out in front of its mouth and tipped with upward-curving tusks.

Dread-like appendages surrounded the top of the skull on either side, almost like hair, and were adorned with bands of silver, gold, and bronze.

The color of the creature's skin was dramatic, a mottling of greens and browns and buffs and browns, striped and speckled in natural camouflage that stood out against the stark white of its cell. He was a heavily muscled humanoid and even leaning against the glass it still towered over her by a few feet. That wasn't hard since she stood at a measly 5'5 on a good day.

The creature's body had a speckling of tough fibrous tissue here and there that looked almost like scars and a symbol of some sort carved into its head. Its hands and feet were tipped in claws. Five fingers, four toes, and claws that almost looked like they were attached to the bone.

Her suspicion about the creature being male was confirmed by the large bulge underneath the loincloth he wore.

Yep. Definitely male.

Lyra bit her lip embarrassed when she realized she had been staring and quickly averted her eyes back to his face. His mandibles quivered slightly as her eyes found his. They weren't exactly human, the pupils were too small, more reptilian, but they held intelligence.

Definitely male and definitely Alien.

Lyra watched unfazed as his mandibles suddenly stretched wide, revealing its pink inner cheeks, its inner-mouth on full display. It roared at her, long and loud. The redhead cocked her head to the side slightly, not blinking. She was too tired to blink. She didn't mind it roaring at her, it was another sound filling the normally silent space. There was no way in hell she was moving away from the warmth it provided through the glass no matter how much it roared at her.

Its eyes stayed locked on hers, keeping contact throughout his aggressive display as if challenging her. After a few moments, the roaring stopped, and instead, it seemed as if it was frowning at her. Maybe she confused him. Lyra nearly giggled at the thought.

The creature blinked once, huffing almost indignantly as he swiftly turned his head away, leaning it back against the glass, pressing its tube structured dreads against the divider. It was dismissing her.

Whatever he was, he was definitely more human than the previous creature that inhabited that cell. He wasn't trying to break down the divider to eat her and that, in her opinion, was a plus. Comforted beyond measure by the close proximity of his body heat, she let her eyes sweep closed as a wave of exhaustion hit her. As sleep began to take hold, he couldn't but think she had passed some sort of test.

Whether that was a good thing, or a bad thing remained to be seen.


A/N: Now we are getting somewhere! As you can see I have definitely added and made changes to the original story...if you even read the original story. Please review!